Blast of an Encampment!

The following video was cut together from footage captured last October for the Fall Encampment. Doug Barry runs his Radix Boot Camp for kids of all ages.

The weekend was challenging, but as you will see everyone had a great time. Don’t be put off by the challenges. Doug is great with kids and had everyone encouraging each other. I didn’t matter how athletic or advanced the kids were in their catechism everyone was treated with respect and support.

This Spring Encampment the Knights of Lepanto will be running the Boot Camp, but we hope to have Doug back for the Fall Encampment.




Spring Encampment Is Coming!

The Spring Encampment page is up. The even will take place on the weekend of May 23-25. The Advertising Flyer and Registration and Release Forms are available, plus all the details can be found there as well.

Please print out the Advertising Flyer and post it where you can. Let’s get the word out!

The linked thumbnail below will remain in the side bar, so it will always be visible on the site.

Click on the thumbnail:

MaryVictrix News: Holy Hour, Catholic Action and KL Formation

Several things or going on this week. First of all, I am on my way up to our friary in Maine NY, Mount St. Francis to visit our friars there before my trip to Rome during the first part of May. I will be there for our general chapter, which will conclude on Pentecost. Please pray for our community during this important time.

I will be back for the Third Thursday Night Holy Hour for the Fathers of our Families (program). This will be the third holy hour of the novena which will conclude in October just before the presidential election.

I have long encouraged the Knights of Lepanto to engage in Catholic action and our Third Thursday Meetings have been oriented in that direction. It is, however, far more important to pray and I have not wanted to neglect this. Hence the novena.

This particular month, I have invited Peter Wolfgang of the Family Institute of Connecticut to speak following the holy. I will be putting up a post shortly on the work of Peter at FIC. I am inviting all local men to come and learn more about how you can help to protect marriage and family life in Connecticut.

Thirdly, on Saturday, April 19 I will be directing a day of recollection at the friary for the Knights of Lepanto, specifically for all the first year members who are in need of their basic formation. This is open to all those who are formal MIM members and who attend the Knights’ meetings, including those who have already finished the first year formation and would like to review or just attend for their spiritual benefit.

We are planning on an early day, so that the whole Saturday is not shot for the guys who have stuff to do around the house. WE BEGIN AT 8:30 AM.

Here are the topics I will be covering on Saturday:

1. What is the group, The Knights of Lepanto? (Article 1 and 2, KL Directory)

• History
• The Name
• Nature and Purpose

2. Is there such a Thing as Catholic Masculinity?

• The Problem within the Family and the Church
• The Fatherhood of God
• Reclaiming Masculinity and Fatherhood

3. Do Grown Men Need Our Lady?

• The Imitation of Christ
• Mary and the Church
• Motherhood and Femininity

MaryVictix Desktops

Some time ago I designed a desktop wallpaper for the Knights of Lepanto and Mary Victrix. I am now making it available in different sizes for both PC and Mac.

I originally designed it for a Mac cinema display (letterbox) with a nice dark area for the icons on the right. I have adapted the original to several sizes of the cinema display for the PC with the icon space on the left, and I have further cropped it for several sizes of the standard apsect ratio. It does not look as good in the standard ratio, but so be it. (The space for the icons had to be cropped out.)

The artifacts pictured in the wallpaper are all significant. Any thoughts? All feedback will be appreciated. Click on the thumbnail and right click to “save image as”.

Original Mac version Cinema Display

1683 x 1052

PC Cinema Dispays

1280 x 800	1224 x 768

PC Standard Dispays

1280 x 1024	800 x 600

Men at Arms Unite at HolyLeague.org

Update Added

Here is the announcement as I promised.

Father Rick Heilman, founder of the Knights of Divine Mercy has been in touch with many Catholic men’s organizations, trying to band together a New Holy League in order to protect the public order by praying a nine month rosary novena preparation for the national election. MaryVictrix is privileged to be counted among the League, and you will find Radix with Doug Barry enlisted as well. Father Heilman was kind enough to post The Spirit of Lepanto post as an explanation of the spirit of this New Holy League.

I urge all the Knights of Lepanto and all men at arms who read MaryVictrix to go to HolyLeague.org, join the league and pray the rosary novena. I am posting below, Fr. Heilman’s launch announcement.

Update: Join the Holy League by clicking on the membership tab and sign up.

Dear Friends in Christ,

Now is the Time! Christ put it this way, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

On the eve of Super Tuesday, and exactly nine months from election day, the sense of urgency could not be greater.

I am asking all men who truly believe that “nothing is impossible with God,” to join me, in this critical election year, to reclaim surrendered ground from the culture of death.

This clarion call is not for those who are too absorbed in their own lives, or for those who have long since lost the belief in answered prayer. This is for those who have been waiting for just such a campaign that asks them be a part of something so important … possibly the most important thing.

Here it is, quite simply …

Drawing inspiration from the epic Battle of Lepanto in 1571, which called on all Catholic warriors and knights to band together to form an armada to combat spiritual error and fight for Truth. This faithful remnant was dubbed “The Holy League.”

In the Spirit of Lepanto, we are compelled to re-ignite the warrior spirit in all of us and take a stand against the mighty forces of spiritual error and the dictatorship of moral relativism. Do I have your attention? Good!!

The battle today is a spiritual warfare and is fought, by and large, on our knees. Please go to this brand new website, launched just today, and join ranks with the new armada of life as we gather the warriors and knights once again to form the new “Holy League” for today. We are appealing to every catholic man and every Catholic men’s apostolate and organization with this clarion call to join ranks in this new “Holy League.” Don’t be found outside looking in … stand up and be counted!

The story of Lepanto, the prayer campaign, the weapons of spiritual warfare … it’s all there on this exciting new website.

Please join, and please do all you can to spread the message of this clarion call to join the “Holy League.”

Domino Gloria!

Fr. Rick Heilman

Major Election Announcement for Men

No, I am not running for president. Against the Rule of St. Francis.

Tomorrow, Monday, February 4 at sundown, an eminent league of Catholic men’s organizations, banded at the behest of one fine inspired priest, will announce a nine month novena of Rosaries for a favorable outcome of our national elections, one that will bring about a greater respect for human life.

Stay tuned. I will post a link to a website created for this purpose. I am asking all Knights of Lepanto, near and far, to participate.

Empty the armories. Clean and load your Rosaries.

This will correspond nicely to our Novena of Holy Hours.

The Obligatory Kangaroo Post

A visit to Australia would not complete without a Kangaroo adventure. This deadly specimen I captured in the wild with my bare hands after having been ambushed in my sleep. Here I am frightening the beast into submission by imitating its fanged snarl.

Actually, a kind lady by the name of Sue Eldrige has a home in the bush about twenty minutes outside of the town of Toodyay near crown land. She feeds the wild Kangaroos daily, and from time to time rescues or is given a joey (young Kangaroo) that has lost its mother.

This one is still living in her house with her. Here the Roo is in a cloth pouch, if you notice. There are two videos here, one of the Roo in the pouch and one outside the pouch. It was funny, the little guy wanted out to walk around a bit, but shortly after it got out it wanted back in. Sue lowered the pouch down with one hand, and it jumped in head first and then spun around and popped its head out. Without a mother, anything to substitute for the marsupial pouch works just fine.

This is a Pink and Grey Galah, which I guess is a kind of parrot. You ornithologists can set me straight, if need be. Sue feeds the Kangaroos grain everyday out of several old tires scattered behind her house. The Galahs and other wild birds are “opportunists,” she says. Sue calls the Galahs “bush clowns.” This one was pretty comical, popping its head up and down to eat and keep a look out at the same time. Very pretty birds, but they make an awful racket.

Well, folks, that’s my stay in Australia. I hop on a plain for L.A. this evening. I will be leaving sunny and warm Perth for sunny and warm California. Eat your heart out New Englanders, I am missing a good chunk of the chill.

Webmaster’s Whereabouts

International Troublemaker.

Just finished speaking on the friars radio show. I touched on some of the issues I will be speaking about on this weekend’s men’s retreat. For the achived file of the radio show, go here and click on the Gate of Heaven link at 20:00.

Retreat Debriefing

Ave Maria!

Well, I’m back after a very grace filled and unexpected retreat.

Fra Roderic and I left on Sunday morning with some friends, who invited us to go with them on a pilgrimage to a shrine that we had never heard about before, Our Lady of Ephesus House of Prayer, in Jamaica, Vermont. Our plan was to visit the shrine with our friends and then continue on separately to Maine, New York, Mt. St. Francis, our retreat house, where we had two cabins reserved for the week.

Our Lady of Ephesus is a title that refers to Meryem Ana Evi, the home of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ephesus in modern day Turkey, that was provided for Her by St. John when he took Her with him there. In the late 1800’s a Catholic priest followed up on the location and description of Our Lady’s last home, in Ephesus, as it was described by Blessed Catherine Emerich in her mysical writings. What he found was a ruin that exactly conformed to the mystic’s writings. Furthermore, there was a local tradition in the area held to by both the orthodox and Muslims that the ruin was indeed Our Lady’s home.

Don and Mary Tarinelli, the founders and costodians of the House of Prayer in Jamaica, Vermont, have a long history of association with Our Lady’s House in Ephesus. I will leave all the particulars of that very interesting and inspiring story to AirMaria, as I did a video interview with Mary, just before we left Vermont today. Fra Roderic will have that up, hopefully, in a day or two.

Anyway, we celebrated Holy Mass in the replica of Our Lady’s House in Jamaica, Sunday afternoon, and then with our friends were invited by Don and Mary back to the House of Prayer for a tour. What we found, among other things, were two fully furnished priest’s apartments that Mary left at our disposal. The offer seemed so providential, and the place so graced that we eagerly accepted, and I am so glad we did.

It was so quiet there, Fra Roderic and I were virually hermits, save for morning Mass at which Don and Mary assisted. I was able to walk down a trail to Our Lady’s house several times over the week to pray in solitude. What a blessing!

The House of Prayer and the replica are open 24 hours a day, and no notice of one’s plans to visit is necessary, unless accommodations for the night are needed. Mind you, this place is out in the sticks, but it is well worth the trip. As I said, I will leave the more interesting details of the House of Prayer and replica for the AirMaria post.

I just want to thank Don and Mary Tarinelli for their gracious hospitality and for the inspiring work they are doing on behalf of Our Lady.

Just one, more thing. Ephesus was also the site of the proclamation of the first Marian dogma, the Divine Maternity, at the Council of Ephesus in 431. In Ephesus, the celebration of the Maternity of Mary on the second Sunday of October, takes place in the ruins of the oldest Church dedicated to Mary. Since the Feast of the Holy Rosary takes place on October 7 (Our Lady of Victory; see this image, it stands outside the House of Mary in Ephesus and reminds me of OLV), this is also a very important feast at the House of Our Lady. Ephesus was also a launching point for some of the Crusading activity, and was in the possession of the Ottoman Empire. It is full of chivalrous significance.

From One Hiatus to Another

I am back with a new Standing Fast video after breaking for a long while for various reasons. Expect new Standing Fast videos to be up on AirMaria on a weekly basis. I have a few in the can. I will not be posting here again until probably Friday.

I am off to my yearly retreat. Unfortunately, I am not going to La Verna, pictured above, where St. Francis of Assisi received the stigmata, but the place where I am going is nice enough. BTW, if you ever get a chance to go to La Verna you won’t be disappointed. It is the most ideal place for a retreat you could imagine: Quiet, holy and spectacularly beautiful. One day I would like to give a retreat there myself.

I will be leaving for Australia on the November 11 and will back in December. I will be visiting our friars there and giving a retreat to some men in Perth who are interested in the Knights of Lepanto. While I am away for that, I will post as often as I can.

Pray for me and I will pray for all of you.

Stand fast and never surrender.

Ave Maria!